On February 9 the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee, which had already informally decided against LD 1707, the bill that would have created severe penalties for people associated with criminal street gangs, killed a substitute proposal for a study to be done on how to define gangs and how to have police share information on them. (See "Anti-gang Bill Dumped," by Lance Tapley, February 3.)

John Rogers, Maine Criminal Justice Academy director, told legislators at a work session he hadn't noticed "rampant" gang activity, he had a personal problem with "what a definition of a gang is," and he didn't know where proponents got their information citing a high rate of crimes caused by gangs. He said the academy, which was to be mandated to do the study, already provided training on gangs to law-enforcement officers. After sponsor Amy Volk, a Scarborough Republican, apologized for bringing the bill to the committee, its members unanimously killed it and the substitute study.

SUBVERSIVE SUMMER | June 18, 2014 Prisons, pot festivals, and Orgonon: Here are some different views of summertime Maine — seen through my personal political lens.

LEFT-RIGHT CONVERGENCE - REALLY? | June 06, 2014 “Unstoppable: A Gathering on Left-Right Convergence,” sponsored by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, featured 26 prominent liberal and conservative leaders discussing issues on which they shared positions. One was the minimum wage.

STATE OF POLARIZATION | April 30, 2014 As the campaign season begins, leading the charge on one side is a rural- and northern-Maine-based Trickle-Down Tea Party governor who sees government’s chief role as helping the rich (which he says indirectly helps working people), while he vetoes every bill in sight directly helping the poor and the struggling middle class, including Medicaid expansion, the issue that most occupied the Legislature this year and last.

MICHAEL JAMES SENT BACK TO PRISON | April 16, 2014 The hearing’s topic was whether James’s “antisocial personality disorder” was enough of a mental disease to keep him from being sent to prison.